A BRIEF HISTORY OF The Frustrations

“The Frustrations” was the name suggested by VW. It reflected the fact that all of us were frustrated with our buttoned-down, corporate day jobs, when what we really wanted to do was rock.

The Frustrations are proud to be celebrating over 40 years together.
The band was originally formed out of necessity in 1983 to perform at a post wedding function for some friends getting married shortly after college. In our view, they had capitulated to their parents on every element of the wedding – afternoon Reception, at a suburban Country Club with a Big Band providing ‘swing’ music. A few of us decided something needed to happen after the Reception, so, we invented the ‘After Party’. We knew we couldn’t afford to hire a real band (besides, they take too many breaks played too many ballads). We hated Disco (quite the rage at the time) and so, we convinced ourselves that we could borrow and rent some equipment and play the songs we knew from our 8th grade garage bands (the last time we had touched the said instruments).

Mark Capeloto (lead singer), Jim Pettersson (guitar&bass), Bruce Vanderwall (keyboard and bass), Steve Griffin (lead guitar) and Mike Kelly (drums) rehearsed a few times, got some goofy outfits, and named ourselves “The Honeymoons Over” for this gig. We hosted the party at an infamous rental house on the Montlake Cut (nicknamed “Club M”). Needless to say, our enthusiastic guests who had been imbibing steadily for 6 hours) thought we were tremendous. The party finally broke up after we had played the same 8 songs we knew about 3 times each and neighbors had called the Seattle Police. Sony Beta-max video tape taken of the Show proved how dreadful we really were – however – we had already accepted our next gig at that point (couple of friend’s 30th birthday party) and we knew we had some serious work to do and we needed a new name. “The Frustrations” was the name suggested by VW. It reflected the fact that all of us were frustrated with our buttoned-down, corporate day jobs, when what we really wanted to do was rock. We also swiftly added Bob Caldwell (saxophone) and Tom O’Keefe (drums) to cement the bands line-up.

Over the course of a couple years, we added the lovely and talented “Frustrelles” – Lori Wash Skinner and Hallee Wash Viniotis - to handle Lead and Back-up vocals plus Keyboard (as well as to improve the visual sight-lines of the band) and we began practice quite seriously, buy decent equipment and learn more songs in preparation for the annual “Mt. Baker Shaker” hosted for about 10 years by Steve Brazil, Mark Simpson, Eddie Pasatiempo and Bob Story. During 1989 and 1990 we played to our largest audiences at the legendary “Seafair Ball”, held at Historic Union Station.

Trying to find the right work/life balance led to a brief hiatus from 1995 to 2005. All bands go thru this phase – you know – finding themselves, searching for inner-peace, working on solo projects, raising children, etc.

In 2005 The Frustrations mounted the triumphant ‘Comeback Tour’ at EMP (now MoPOP) and added ‘The Pett Boys’ – Jim Pettersson’s talented three boys (Drew, Joey and TJ) as our Horn Section - and any other instrument you care to hand them. A 24-track recording and DVD (‘As Live as You Can Take It’) was released.

For the last 40 years, The Frustrations are proud to have helped raise a very significant amount of money (let’s just say it’s easily over $1,000,000) in support of various Pacific Northwest charitable foundations and non-profits, including; Cystic Fibrosis, Children’s Hospital, Treehouse, Harborview Medical Center, Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre, Family Services of King County, and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

The Band plays 1960’s and 70’s R&B, Motown and Rock. All very danceable. We adopted the motto “No Ballads, No Breaks” early, and have stayed true to that theme, often playing 3 hour non-stop ‘sets’. By the end of the night, the audience is usually just as exhausted as we are. We have limited ourselves to playing one or two events each year, aligning ourselves with a Charity or Not-For-Profit Foundation where one of our members has an affiliation. In 2007 and 2012 The Frustrations branched out and played as the ‘pit band’ for Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre production of the hit Musical “GREASE”. 20 performances in 20 days with a 112 page Score. Whew!

We have played venues from the Parkers Ballroom (RIP) and Union Station to EMP, The Triple Door and The Paramount Theatre